Delivering anonymous communication between customers at customer care site

ABSTRACT

A customer care site includes a content item posted by a first user. The content item is associated with a first contact link for requesting communication with the first user. When a second user tries to contact the first user by selecting the first contact link, a computing system associated with the customer care site identifies contact information of the first user using information associated with the first contact link. The computing system can establish a communication session between the first user and the second user without revealing contact information of the first user and the second user to each other during the communication session.

BACKGROUND

A web site is one of the most important channels for a business toattract potential customers, sell products or services, and communicatewith customers. A customer care site provides a variety of informationregarding promotion, billing, and technical issues. Some users of thecustomer care site can interact with other users by posting or answeringquestions. However, such asynchronous interactions between users may notprovide satisfactory communications to address certain issues. Someusers may want to interact further, in real-time, with another user ofthe customer care site while not compromising their privacy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thisdisclosure will become more readily appreciated by reference to thefollowing detailed description, when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative environment forenabling communication between users of a customer care site.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative environmentincluding an intermediary system that is configured to managecommunication between different networks.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating processes for enablingcommunication between users of a customer care site.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an electronic display including adiscussion between multiple parties and one or more contact linksassociated with portions of the discussion.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an electronic display includinginformation provided to a target user about a contact requesting user'scommunication request.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an electronic display including aninterface to set one or more permissions or conditions for contacting auser via a call link at a customer care site.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to enablingreal-time communication between users of a customer care site whileprotecting their private information. Specific embodiments and exampleapplications of the present disclosure will be described with referenceto the drawings. These embodiments and example applications are intendedto illustrate, and not limit, the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative environment 100 forenabling anonymous communication between users of a customer care site.The environment shown in FIG. 1 includes a user device 110, a network120, a customer care site server 130, and an agent device 180.

In the networked environment 100, the customer care site server 130provides a customer care site 140. The customer care site 140 may be aweb site through which users can exchange information on numeroustopics, such as products, services, and the like. Using the user device110 connected to the network 120, users can initiate or participate in adiscussion forum by submitting questions or comments about a particulartopic through the customer care site 140. The customer care site server130 can include and utilize a user data storage 168 to store and/ormanage one or more records associated with all or a portion of thediscussion, including an initial question or comment and any subsequentrelated questions or comments, as well as information regarding userswho submitted individual questions or comments. The customer care siteserver 130 can, for example, create one or more identifiers for theindividual users who authored a question or comment, as well as one ormore identifiers for the discussion forum or topics included in thediscussion forum, and provide various mappings between theseidentifiers. Accordingly, the discussion forum and/or individualquestions or comments made in the discussion forum can be associated inthe user data storage 168 with one or more identifiers of the individualusers who authored a question or comment. The customer care site server130 can also store contact information provided by the users inassociation with identifiers of the users.

The customer care site 140, provided by the customer care site server130, may also include a contact link in association with individualquestions or comments in a discussion forum. Thus, while browsing a pageof the customer care site 140 using the user device 110, a user (contactrequesting user) can select a contact link to send a request to contactanother user (target user) from the user device 110 to the customer caresite server 130. In one embodiment, selection of a contact link by acontact requesting user of the customer care site 140 causes aninterface, such as another web page of the customer care site 140, to bedisplayed on the user device 110 of the contact requesting user. Thedisplayed interface can be configured to receive further informationfrom the contact requesting user regarding his or her request tocommunicate with another user or a customer care agent (target user) whoposted the associated question or comment. For example, the interfacemay allow the contact requesting user to submit an additional questionspecifically to the target user. The interface may also allow thecontact requesting user to provide identifying information to enable thetarget user to identify or otherwise contact the contact requestinguser.

In another embodiment, selection of the contact link may cause thecustomer care site server 130 to automatically generate a genericrequest from the contact requesting user to the target user to furtherdiscuss the associated question or comment, and thus a further web pagemay not be initially generated to obtain further contextual informationfrom the contact requesting user about his or her additional inquiryprior to contacting the target user. In some embodiments, if the contactrequesting user is logged into the customer care site 140, or otherwiseidentifiable by the customer care site 140, the generic contact requestmay automatically provide the target user with information identifyingthe contact requesting user. Alternatively, the customer care siteserver 130 may use identification information corresponding to thecontact requesting user to determine stored preferences of the contactrequesting user, such as what type of contact information toautomatically provide to the target user, such as a name, phone number,email, and the like of the contact requesting user.

In any of the foregoing embodiments, the contact link includes one ormore identifiers for enabling the customer care site server 130 tocontact the target user. The one or more identifiers may include aconfidential identifier corresponding to the target user which does notdisclose any information that would specifically identify the targetuser to the contact requesting user, thus maintaining the target user'sprivacy should, for example, the target user not want to further engagewith the contact requesting user. Thus, the request from the user device110 of the contact requesting user includes information that can be usedto identify the target user who posted the question or commentassociated with the selected contact link.

In response to selection of the contact link from the user device 110,the customer care site server 130 can also identify contact informationof the target user from the user data storage 168 using informationincluded in the request. In one embodiment, using the identified contactinformation, the customer care site server 130 initiates a process toestablish a communication channel between user devices 110 of thecontact requesting user and the target user. Prior to making a call tothe target user's device, the customer care site server 130 can check adata entry in the user data storage 168 for a predetermined criterion(condition) for allowing a call to the target user's device. Thepredetermined criterion can be an expiration criterion of a call link,such as an expiration time for the call link or a maximum or thresholdnumber of allowed uses of the contact link or a maximum or thresholdnumber of allowed uses of the contact link in a selected period of timeor interval. As will be described further below, the target user mayselect or set the expiration criterion, such as when submitting acomment, or otherwise making their expertise available, in a discussionforum. In this embodiment, an option in the user interface may bepresented to the user to designate the predetermined criterion. In otherembodiments, the predetermined criterion, such as the expirationcriterion, may be determined from a profile of the user. In yet otherembodiments, customer care site server 130 may automatically set thepredetermined criterion or criteria to control the validity of the calllinks. Thus, in any of these embodiments, once a call link has expired,or otherwise not met the predetermined criterion, the customer care siteserver 130 may disable or remove the corresponding call link from thediscussion forum in the customer care web site 140.

Returning to FIG. 1, in order to establish a communication channelbetween user devices 110, the customer care site server 130 can utilizea communication management service 160 to make a call to the targetuser's device. While making a call to the target user's device, thecommunication management service 160 can prevent the target user'sdevice from displaying an identification or an address on the network120 associated with the calling user's device. In one embodiment, thecommunication management service 160 does not provide, to the targetuser's device, caller ID information representing an identification oran address of the calling user's device on the network 120. In anotherembodiment, the communication management service 160 can overwrite anidentification or an address of the calling user's device on the network120 with an alternative identification, such as an identification ofcustomer care site server 130, the customer care web site 140, or aspecific customer care agent or customer care agent device 180. In thisway the calling user's identity is shielded from the called party.Accordingly, the target user cannot call back to the calling user usingthe alternative identification via the network 120. Similarly, thecommunication management service 160 can also prevent the calling user'sdevice from displaying an identification or an address on the network120 associated with the target user's device. Again, in one embodiment,the communication management service 160 does not provide, to thecalling user's device or even to the customer care web site 140, callerID information representing an identification or an address of thetarget user's device on the network 120. In another embodiment, thecommunication management service 160 can overwrite an identification oran address of the target user's device on the network 120 with analternative identification, such as an identification of customer caresite server 130, the customer care web site 140, or a specific customercare agent or customer care agent device 180. In this way the targetuser's identity is shielded from anyone accessing the discussion forumon the customer care web site 140.

In certain embodiments, the communication management service 160 causesthe target user's device to display information for notifying that theincoming call is related to a particular discussion forum, question,and/or comment on the customer care site 140. For example, while thecommunication management service 160 can initiate a voice/video call,for example, from a first mobile phone of the contact requesting user toa second mobile phone of the target user, the communication managementservice 160 prevents the second mobile phone from displaying the firstmobile phone's number and/or vice versa. In one example, thecommunication management service 160 does not provide the first mobilephone's number to the second mobile phone. In another example, thecommunication management service 160 may overwrite the first mobilephone's identification information with an alternative identificationwhen it makes a call to the second mobile phone. The alternativeidentification by itself does not specifically identify the first mobilephone on a telephone network. Accordingly, the second mobile phonecannot make a call to the first mobile phone using the alternativeidentification provided to the second mobile phone.

The user device 110 could be one of a wide variety of computing devices,including personal computing devices, terminal computing devices, laptopcomputing devices, tablet computing devices, electronic reader devices,mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones, media players, handheld gamingdevices, etc.), wearable devices with network access and programexecution capabilities (e.g., “smart watches” or “smart eyewear”),wireless devices, set-top boxes, gaming consoles, entertainment systems,televisions with network access and program execution capabilities(e.g., “smart TVs”), and various other electronic devices andappliances. Individual user devices 110 may execute a browserapplication to communicate via the network 120 with other computingsystems, such as the customer care site server 130 and the agent device180.

Likewise, the agent device 180 could also be one of a wide variety ofcomputing devices, including personal computing devices, terminalcomputing devices, laptop computing devices, tablet computing devices,electronic reader devices, mobile devices (e.g., mobile phones, mediaplayers, handheld gaming devices, etc.), wearable devices with networkaccess and program execution capabilities (e.g., “smart watches” or“smart eyewear”), wireless devices, set-top boxes, gaming consoles,entertainment systems, televisions with network access and programexecution capabilities (e.g., “smart TVs”), and various other electronicdevices and appliances. Individual agent devices 180 may execute abrowser application to communicate via the network 120 with othercomputing systems, such as the customer care site server 130 and theuser device 110.

The network 120 may be a publicly accessible network of linked networks,possibly operated by various distinct parties, such as the Internet. Inother embodiments, the network 120 may include a private network,personal area network, local area network, wide area network, cablenetwork, satellite network, cellular telephone network, etc., orcombination thereof, each with access to and/or from the Internet. Theuser device 110 communicates with the customer care site server 130 viathe network 120. The customer care site server 130 can facilitate and/orestablish a voice/video call between one user device 110 and another orthe agent device 180, such as in response to a request from a userdevice 110 of a contact requesting user via selection of a contact link154, 156 on the customer care web site 140. The customer care siteserver 130 can utilize the communication management service 160 forestablishing a communication channel between user devices 110 and/oragent devices 180 in response to a request made via the contact links154, 156.

The customer care site server 130 is operable to provide the customercare site 140, which is accessible to the user devices 110. The customercare site 140 can be a web site containing information for existingcustomers, potential customers, or other users of the web site. Thecustomer care site 140 provides a plurality of web pages. As notedabove, various web pages may also provide a forum through which userscan exchange information on numerous topics, such as products, services,and the like. The web pages may include one or more landing pages andsubpages of the landing pages. The customer care site 140 may providedifferent landing pages for different types of customer devices and/orbrowsing software of the customer devices. The customer care site server130 can identify a type of the customer device and/or browsing softwareof the customer device using a script or code embedded in a page ofcustomer care site 140. Based on the identified type of the customerdevice and/or the browsing software, the customer care site 130 providesa corresponding landing page. In some embodiments, when the customercare site server 130 requires a specific feature (for example, a web-RTCfeature) to implement some embodiments of the present invention, such asestablishing a communication channel between user devices 110 and/oragent devices 180, a browser that does not support the specific featuremay be directed to a landing page with limited compatibility 144 ratherthan a landing page 142 that is configured to utilize the specificfeature. The landing page with limited compatibility 144 includes aninformative message that additional features may be available fordifferent devices or browsers.

Users of the customer care site 140 can navigate from the landing pageto different pages, such as a page having a discussion forum 151, basedon their needs. The users can initiate a discussion in a discussionforum by posting a question or comment about a product/service forexample. The discussion forum 151 and any comments or questions, such ascomments 153, 155, on the customer care site 140 can have correspondingcontact links 152, 154, 156 for requesting a call to a user (including acustomer care agent) of the customer care web site 140. Each of thecontact links 152, 154, 156 can be associated with its respectivecontact information that specifies an address/number to which a call forcontacting the author of the question and/or comment will be forwarded.In some embodiments, the contact links 152, 154, 156 do not reveal theassociated contact information in original form as provided by theauthor of the question and/or comment for security purposes.

The contact information associated with the contact link 152 may be atelephone number, an IP address, or any other type of identifier that isassociated with a telephone/device of the author of the initial questionor comment in the discussion forum 151. The contact informationassociated with the contact link 154 may be a telephone number, an IPaddress, or any other type of identifier that is associated with anagent device 180 via which the agent comment 153 has been posted. Thecontact information associated with the contact link 156 may be atelephone number, an IP address, or any other type of identifier that isassociated with a user device 110 via which the user comment 155 hasbeen posted. In some embodiments, the contact links 152, 154, 156 do notreveal corresponding contact information in its original form. When auser clicks or selects one of the contact links, the user device 110and/or the customer care site server 130 transmits a request forestablishing a communication session to the communication managementservice 160.

The communication management service 160 is a computing component of thecustomer care site server 130 that is operable to manage communicationbetween the user devices 110 and/or the agent devices 180 in response toa request for establishing a communication session. The communicationmanagement service 160 includes the web RTC module 162 that is operableto establish, facilitate, and manage a communication session(voice/video/live chat) between, for example, the user device 110 andthe agent device 180, in cooperation with corresponding web RTCcomponents in the user device 110 and the agent device 180. A webbrowser that supports a web RTC feature can cooperate with the web RTCmodule 162 to establish a communication session between the user devices110 and/or the agent devices 180.

While the communication management service 160 is operable to establisha communication session between a contact requesting device (of acontact requesting user) and a destination device (of a target user),the communication management service 160 may not provide the contactrequesting device's original contact information to the destinationdevice. Original contact information is contact information provided byusers of the customer care site 140 for communicating with other users.While the communication management service 160 utilizes the originalcontact information of the contact requesting device for establishing acommunication channel between the contact requesting device and thedestination device, the communication management service 160 does notprovide the original contact information of the contact requestingdevice to the destination device. Also, while the communicationmanagement service 160 utilizes the original contact information of thedestination device for establishing a communication channel between thecontact requesting device and the destination device, the communicationmanagement service 160 does not provide the original contact informationof the destination device to the contact requesting device, thuspreventing display thereof at the contact requesting device.

In some embodiments, the communication management service 160 can relaycommunication data between the contact requesting device and thedestination device and provide alternative contact information to thecontact requesting device and the destination device instead of theoriginal (or actual) contact information. For example, the communicationmanagement service 160 establishes two separate communication sessionsrespectively with a contact requesting device and a destination deviceand facilitates management and connection of the two separatecommunication sessions while preventing exposure of the original contactinformation of the contact requesting device to the destination deviceand vice versa. In some embodiments, the communication managementservice 160 can also cause contact information of the communicationmanagement service 160 to be provided to the contact requesting deviceand/or the destination device, instead of the original contactinformation of the contact requesting device and/or the destinationdevice.

In some embodiments, in response to a request from a user device 110based on selection of a contact link, the communication managementservice 160 is operable to deliver information regarding the specificquestion or comment associated with the selected contact link to thetarget device. The target device is then able to display thisinformation to help its user (target user) recognize the subject of theincoming call. The information associated with the specific question orcomment can include a variety of information such as identification,title, and/or summary of the question or comment 151, 153 155.

The user data storage 168 can be a database that is configured to storeand manage information of users of the customer care site 140. The userdata storage 168 can store and manage a variety of information includingidentification of users, contact information of users,questions/comments posted by users, contact preferences of users, etc.The customer care site server 130 and the communication managementmodule 160 can access information stored in the user data storage 168for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. In FIG. 1, thecommunication management service 160 is included in the customer caresite server 130. However, in certain embodiments, the communicationmanagement service 160 can be implemented by another, separate computingsystem apart from the customer care site server 130.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an illustrative environmentincluding an intermediary system 270 that is configured to managecommunication between different communication networks. The environmentshown in FIG. 2 includes user devices 110, 210, an IP network 220, atelecommunication network (voice telecommunication network) 222, acustomer care site server 130 providing a customer care site 140, anintermediary system 270, an agent terminal 280, an agent phone 282, anda customer care call system 290.

The customer care site 140 includes an agent comment 153 and a usercomment 155 in a discussion forum 151. The agent comment 153 is acomment posted by a customer care agent using the agent terminal 280 orthe agent phone 282. The contact link 154 is associated with a telephonenumber, an IP address, or another type of identifier of the agentterminal 280 or the agent phone 282. The user comment 155 is a commentposted by a target user using the user device 210. The contact link 156is associated with a telephone number, an IP address, or another type ofidentifier of the user device 210. The contact links 152, 154, 156 donot themselves reveal the direct or actual contact information of theagent terminal 280, the agent phone 282, or the user device 210, butinstead include information that can be used by the customer care siteserver 130 to determine such information.

When a contact requesting user selects one of the contact links 152,154, 156 at the user device 110, a request to communicate with the agentterminal 280, the agent phone 282, or the user device 210 is transmittedto the customer care site server 130. The communication managementservice 160 of the customer care site server 130 is operable to handlethe received request in cooperation with the intermediary system 270, ifnecessary.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the intermediary system 270 includesan Identity and Access Management (IAM) system 271, a Unified AccessGateway (UAG) 272, a Media Gateway (MGW) 273, and an IP MultimediaSystem (IMS) 274. The intermediary system 270 is a computing systemoperable to facilitate communication between two devices connected totwo different communication networks respectively. For example, when theuser device 110 is a tablet computer connected to an IP network 220(Internet) and the agent device 282 is a telephone connected to atelecommunication network 222 (PSTN), the intermediary system 270 canfacilitate communication between the user device 110 and the agent phone282, which are connected to the two different networks 220, 222.

The Identity and Access Management system 271 is a computing system thatfacilitates the management of electronic identities. Identity and AccessManagement system 271 can be used to initiate, capture, record, andmanage customer identities and their related access permissions in anautomated fashion. The Unified Access Gateway 272 is a computing systemthat can connect a web RTC module, such as web RTC module 162 asdepicted in FIG. 1 and which can be included in the communicationmanagement service 160 or 260 to the IP Multimedia System 274. The MediaGateway 273 is a device and/or service that converts digital mediastreams between disparate telecommunications networks. The IP MultimediaSystem 274 may generally enable multimedia communications acrossnetworks over multiple transport protocols.

In some embodiments, in response to a request via the contact links 152,154, 156, the communication management service 160 provides informationto two or more devices associated with the same user of the customercare site 140. For example, when a request to communicate with acustomer care agent is made using the contact link 154, thecommunication management service 160 can establish a voice communicationchannel between the user device 110 and the agent phone 282 via thetelecommunication network 222, as well as provide additional informationto the customer care agent 280 in cooperation with the customer carecall system 290.

The customer care call system 290 is a computing system that isconfigured to store and manage a variety of information related tocustomer care operations. In response to a request to communicate with acustomer care agent, the communication management service 160 identifiesthe user device 110 (or the contact requesting user) and can transmit arequest for additional information associated with the identified userdevice (or user). In response to the request for providing additionalinformation to the customer care agent, the customer care call system290 retrieves information associated with the identified user device (oruser) from its associated database and forwards the retrievedinformation to the agent terminal 280.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating processes associated withfacilitating communication between users of a customer care site 140. Aswill be further explained below, these processes includes aspects ofexchanging and protecting user information between user devices and/oror customer care agents.

At block 301, the customer care site server 130 provides the customercare site 140 to a first user device 110. The customer care site 140includes one or more pages providing an interface for users to submitquestions or comments. These one or more pages, or other pages of thecustomer care site 140, may also include a plurality of questions and/orcomments 151, 153, 155 previously submitted by users and/or customercare agents. The questions and/or comments are associated withcorresponding contact links 152, 154, 156, which are also displayed onthe one or more pages adjacent to their corresponding question and/orcomment.

When a user of the customer care site 140 submits a question or commentthrough the provided interface, the customer care site server 130 canobtain, store, and/or process a plurality of different types ofinformation about the user and/or submitted information. For example,the customer care site server 130 can obtain, store, and/or processcontact information of a user submitting a question and/or comment andassociate the contact information with the submitted question and/orcomment. In some embodiments, the customer care site server 130 canrequest users to provide their contact information when they post aquestion and/or comment on the customer care site 140. In otherembodiments, the customer care site server 130 may be able toautomatically determine user contact information and associate with asubmitted question and/or comment through the customer care site 140,such as when a user is already registered with the site and logged intothe site when submitting the question and/or comment. The customer caresite server 130 may also obtain other information about the usersubmitting the question and/or comment. Again, this additionalinformation can be obtained either through an interface in the customercare site 140 when submitting the question and/or comment or through aregistration process with the customer care site 140. This additionalinformation can include identification of various user preferences, suchas whether the user wants others to be able to contact them directlyabout a particular question and/or comment and any parameters defininghow or when the user can be contacted.

The customer care site server 130 processes the user submitted questionand/or comment and the user contact information to create a contact linkthat is then displayed in the customer care site 140 adjacent to theuser's submitted question and/or comment. As noted above, the contactlink may include one or more identifiers for enabling the customer caresite server 130 to contact the target user upon subsequent selection ofthe contact link. The one or more identifiers may include a confidentialidentifier corresponding to the user who submitted the correspondinginformation and which does not disclose any information that wouldspecifically identify that user to other users of the customer care site140, thus maintaining the user's privacy.

Returning to FIG. 3, at block 303, the customer care site server 130receives a communication request from the first user device 110responsive to the first user's selection of a first contact linkprovided on a page in the customer care site 140. The communicationrequest made via the first contact link includes information thatidentifies or can otherwise be used to identify contact information of asecond user who posted the question and/or comment associated with thefirst contact link. For example, the request made via the first contactlink can include an identification of the information included in thefirst contact link, which can include one or more identifiers that maybe used to identify the user who posted the associated question orcomment and/or identify the associated question or comment itself.

At block 305, the customer care site server 130 identifies contactinformation, and/or contact preferences, of a second user device (i.e.,the destination user device of the second or target user) based oninformation contained in the request generated via selection of thefirst contact link. For example, the customer care site server 130 canidentify a mobile phone number of a user who posted a question and/orcomment associated with the first contact link. Additionally, thecustomer care site server 130 may also identify the specific questionand/or comment associated with the first contact link based on theinformation contained in the request via selection of the first contactlink. Yet further, the customer care site server 130 may identify otherpreferences of the second user, such as how and when the second userprefers to be contacted.

At block 307, the customer care site server 130 can contact the seconduser device regarding the communication request from the first userdevice. In some embodiments, the customer care site server 130 maypreliminarily provide the second user device with information about thecommunication request from the first user device prior to establishing acommunication channel between the first and second user devices. Inparticular, the customer care site server 130 may cause this informationto be displayed on a display of the second user device 110 or any otherdevice designed in the second user's preferences for receivingcommunications from the customer care site server 130. As an example ofthe provided information, the customer care site server 130 may providethe second user with identification of the question and/or comment whichis the subject or basis for the requested communication. In addition oralternatively, the customer care site server 130 may provide the seconduser with identification of the first user initiating the requestedcommunication. In other embodiments, the customer care site server 130may provide the second user with an option to accept or reject thecommunication request from the first user, a response to which may becommunicated back to the customer care site server 130 from the seconduser device. In yet other embodiments, block 307 may be optional or bedetermined to be unnecessary if the second user has stored preferencesindicating, for example, that the second user will accept allcommunication requests and/or doesn't need any preliminary informationabout the communication request or first user.

At block 309, the customer care site server 130 utilizes thecommunication management service 160 to initiate a connection betweenthe first and second user devices. In some embodiments, thecommunication management service 160 can utilize its web RTC module 162to establish a voice/video communication channel between the first userdevice and the second user device. The communication management service160 can also, in some embodiments, prevent, or otherwise not allow, thefirst user device (contact requesting device) to display contactinformation associated with the second user device (destination device).Likewise, the communication management service 160 can also prevent, orotherwise not allow, the second user device to display contactinformation associated with the first user device.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an electronic display, such as of a webpage, including a discussion between multiple parties and one or morecontact links associated with portions of the discussion. In particular,a browser of a user device 110, 210 can display a discussion page 410from the customer care site 140. The discussion page 410 displays adiscussion forum 425 and an optional header 420, which can identify asubject category and/or a navigation bar associated with the discussionpage 410. The discussion forum 425 can include a title or description ofan issue 430 presented in the discussion forum 425. The discussion forum425 may also include an initial question 440 that has been posted by auser (user K), as well as a number of other comments and/or questions.For example, the discussion forum 425 also includes a comment 442 from acustomer care agent (agent A) and a comment 446 from another user (userB). Each of the comments 442 and 446 in the discussion forum 425 isassociated with a contact link 443 and 447 displayed adjacent to therespective comments 442, 446. As noted above, selection of the contactlinks 443 and 447 causes the customer care site server 130 to generate arequest to contact the corresponding user who posted the question and/orcomment adjacent to the respective contact link. As also noted above, insome embodiments, the contact links 443 and 447 do not disclose orotherwise reveal the actual contact information of the author of theadjacent comment. The discussion page 410 may also include accountidentification and/or (actual) contact information 450 of the currentuser who logged into the customer care site 140 and viewing thediscussion page 410 on his/her user device.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an electronic display, such as of a webpage, including information provided to a target user about a contactrequesting user's communication request. In particular, a browser of adestination device 210 of a target user can display a preliminarycommunication request page 510 from the customer care site 140responsive to a contact requesting user selecting a contact link, suchas contact link 447 in FIG. 4. The communication request page 510generally provides information to the target user about a communicationrequest from a contact requesting user. The communication request page510 can include a header 520 providing information about the origin ofthe incoming communication request. In some embodiment, as shown in FIG.5, the header 520 does not reveal the actual contact information 450 ofthe contact requesting party. The communication request page 510 canalso include an inquiry 530 for the target user to indicate whether ornot to accept the communication request. The inquiry 530 may alsoinclude a request for the target user to further indicate otherinformation about responding to the communication request, such as howthe target user prefers to communicate with the contact requesting user(e.g., video, voice only, text chat) or when the target user willrespond to the communication request (e.g., only once, no more for theparticular discussion forum, no more for the particular contactrequesting user). The communication request page 510 can also include asubject 540 about which the communication request pertains. The subject540 may correspond, for example, to the title or description of theissue 430 presented in the discussion forum 425 in FIG. 4. Thecommunication request page 510 can further include an identification 550of the target user's comment from the discussion forum 410.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an electronic display including aninterface to set a permission or condition for contacting a user via acall link. In particular, a browser of a user device 110, 210 candisplay a discussion page 610 from the customer care site 140. Thediscussion page 610 displays a title or description of an issue 630 anda question 640 that has been posted by a user K. The discussion page 610displays a first interface portion 650 for receiving a comment fromanother user B. The discussion page 610 displays a second interfaceportion 660 for receiving input from the user B about one or morepermissions or conditions for contacting the user B via a call link. Forexample, as shown in FIG. 6, the second interface portion 660 may allowuser B to designate whether others are allowed to contact user B aboutthe comment. In addition, the second interface portion 660 may haveother criteria that can be designated by user B regarding parameters forthe allowed contact, such as how user B may be contacted (e.g., by voiceand text communication or by text communication only), for what periodof time user B may be contacted (e.g., for 3 days or 1 week from postingof the comment), and/or how many total times user B may be contacted(e.g., 5 or 10 total times or any other threshold beyond which contactwith user B will be prevented via the customer care web site 140). Whenuser B confirms or otherwise allows a comment to be posted to thecustomer care web site 140, a call link to contact user B can bedisplayed in the discussion page 610, such as the call link 447 depictedin FIG. 4.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that all of thefunctions described in this disclosure may be embodied in softwareexecuted by one or more physical processors of the disclosed componentsand mobile communication devices. The software may be persistentlystored in any type of non-volatile storage.

Conditional language, such as, among others, “can,” “could,” “might,” or“may,” unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understoodwithin the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certainembodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certainfeatures, elements, and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is notgenerally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are inany way required for one or more embodiments or that one or moreembodiments necessarily include logic for deciding, with or withoutcustomer input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/orsteps are included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.

Any process descriptions, elements, or blocks in the flow diagramsdescribed herein and/or depicted in the attached figures should beunderstood as potentially representing modules, segments, or portions ofcode which include one or more executable instructions for implementingspecific logical functions or steps in the process. Alternateimplementations are included within the scope of the embodimentsdescribed herein in which elements or functions may be deleted, executedout of order from that shown or discussed, including substantiallyconcurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionalityinvolved, as would be understood by those skilled in the art. It willfurther be appreciated that the data and/or components described abovemay be stored assume in a computer-readable medium and loaded intomemory of the computing device using a drive mechanism associated with acomputer readable storage medium storing the computer executablecomponents such as a CD ROM, DVD ROM, or network interface. Further, thecomponent and/or data can be included in a single device or distributedin any manner. Accordingly, general purpose computing devices may beconfigured to implement the processes, algorithms, and methodology ofthe present disclosure with the processing and/or execution of thevarious data and/or components described above.

It should be emphasized that many variations and modifications may bemade to the above-described embodiments, the elements of which are to beunderstood as being among other acceptable examples. All suchmodifications and variations are intended to be included herein withinthe scope of this disclosure and protected by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising: asimplemented by one or more computing devices configured with specificcomputer-executable instructions: providing, over a network, a first webpage from a customer care web site, the first web page comprising afirst content item posted by a first user and a first contact link forrequesting communication with the first user, wherein the first contentitem posted by the first user comprises a question or a comment postedby the first user in a discussion forum on the first web page of thecustomer care web site; providing a data store maintaining first contactinformation of the first user in association with the first contact linkand the first content item, wherein the first contact informationcorresponds to identification of a first user device of the first user;receiving a contact request, from a second user, to initiate acommunication with the first user by selecting the first contact link onthe first web page at a second user device of the second user, whereinthe second user device is associated with second contact information;and in response to the contact request, (a) identifying the firstcontact information of the first user and the first content item fromthe data store using information included in the contact request; and(b) causing a communication session to be established between the firstuser device and the second user device using the first contactinformation and the second contact information, wherein causing thecommunication session to be established includes causing display of acontact request notification at the first user device, wherein thecontact request notification includes information about the contactrequest including an option to deny the contact request, wherein thecontact request notification includes an identification of the firstcontent item associated with the first contact link, and wherein thecontact request notification excludes identification of the secondcontact information.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the contact request notification is caused to be displayed atthe first user device prior to establishing the communication session.3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the contactrequest notification is caused to be displayed at the first user with aninterface configured to receive the first user's determination regardingwhether to deny the contact request.
 4. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1 further comprising: maintaining, in the data store, acriterion for allowing initiation of a communication session in responseto selection of the first contact link in association with the firstcontact information; and prior to causing initiation of a communicationsession to be established between the first user device and the seconduser device, checking the criterion associated with the first contactinformation for allowing the communication session.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein causing thecommunication session to be established between the first user deviceand the second user device comprises: establishing a first communicationsession with the first user device using the first contact information;establishing a second communication session with the second user deviceusing the second contact information; and connecting the firstcommunication session and the second communication session withoutproviding the second contact information to the first user device. 6.The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein connecting the firstcommunication session and the second communication session furthercomprises: connecting the first communication session and the secondcommunication session without providing the first contact information tothe second user.
 7. A computing system comprising a processor coupled toa memory, the memory including specific instructions that upon executionconfigure the computing system to at least: provide over a network, afirst web page from a customer care web site, the first web pagecomprising a first content item posted by a first user and a firstcontact link for requesting communication with the first user, whereinthe first content item posted by the first user comprises a question ora comment posted by the first user in a discussion forum on the firstweb page of the customer care web site provide a data store maintainingfirst contact information of the first user in association with thefirst contact link and the first content item, wherein the first contactinformation corresponds to identification of a first user device of thefirst user; receive a contact request, from a second user, to initiate acommunication with the first user by selecting the first contact link onthe first web page at a second user device of the second user, whereinthe second user device is associated with second contact information;and in response to the contact request, (a) identify the first contactinformation of the first user and the first content item from the datastore using information included in the contact request; and (b) cause acommunication session to be established between the first user deviceand the second user device using the first contact information and thesecond contact information, wherein causing the communication session tobe established includes causing display of a contact requestnotification at the first user device, wherein the contact requestnotification includes information about the contact request including anoption to deny the contact request, wherein the contact requestnotification includes an identification of the first content itemassociated with the first contact link, and wherein the contact requestnotification excludes identification of the second contact information.8. The computing system of claim 7, wherein the contact requestnotification is displayed at the first user device prior to establishingthe communication session.
 9. The computing system of claim 8, whereinthe contact request notification is displayed at the first user with aninterface configured to receive the first user's determination regardingwhether to deny the contact request.
 10. The computing system of claim7, wherein the specific instructions upon execution further configurethe computing system to: maintain in the data store, a criterion forallowing a communication session in response to selection of the firstcontact link in association with the first contact information; andprior to causing a communication session to be established between thefirst user device and the second user device, check the criterionassociated with the first contact information for allowing thecommunication session.
 11. The computing system of claim 7, whereincausing the communication session to be established between the firstuser device and the second user device comprises: establishing a firstcommunication session with the first user device using the first contactinformation; establishing a second communication session with the seconduser device using the second contact information; and connecting thefirst communication session and the second communication session withoutproviding the second contact information to the first user device. 12.The computing system of claim 11, wherein connecting the firstcommunication session and the second communication session furthercomprises: connecting the first communication session and the secondcommunication session without providing the first contact information tothe second user.
 13. A non-transitory computer storage medium storingcomputer-executable instructions that direct a computing device toperform operations comprising: as implemented by one or more computingdevices configured with specific computer-executable instructions:providing, over a network, a first web page from a customer care website, the first web page comprising a first content item posted by afirst user and a first contact link for requesting communication withthe first user, wherein the first content item posted by the first usercomprises a question or a comment posted by the first user in adiscussion forum on the first web page of the customer care web site;providing a data store maintaining first contact information of thefirst user in association with the first contact link and the firstcontent item, wherein the first contact information corresponds toidentification of a first user device of the first user; receiving acontact request, from a second user, to initiate a communication withthe first user by selecting the first contact link on the first web pageat a second user device of the second user, wherein the second userdevice is associated with second contact information; and in response tothe contact request, (a) identifying the first contact information ofthe first user and the first content item from the data store usinginformation included in the contact request; and (b) causing acommunication session to be established between the first user deviceand the second user device using the first contact information and thesecond contact information, wherein causing the communication session tobe established includes causing display of a contact requestnotification at the first user device, wherein the contact requestnotification includes information about the contact request including anoption to deny the contact request, wherein the contact requestnotification includes an identification of the first content itemassociated with the first contact link, and wherein the contact requestnotification excludes identification of the second contact information.14. The non-transitory computer storage medium of claim 13, theoperations further comprising: maintaining, in the data store, acriterion for allowing initiation of a communication session in responseto selection of the first contact link in association with the firstcontact information; and prior to causing initiation of a communicationsession to be established between the first user device and the seconduser device, checking the criterion associated with the first contactinformation for allowing the communication session.
 15. Thenon-transitory computer storage medium of claim 13, the operationsfurther comprising: establishing a first communication session with thefirst user device using the first contact information; establishing asecond communication session with the second user device using thesecond contact information; and connecting the first communicationsession and the second communication session without providing thesecond contact information to the first user device.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein connectingthe first communication session and the second communication sessionfurther comprises: connecting the first communication session and thesecond communication session without providing the first contactinformation to the second user.